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So, Turns Out Eating Breakfast Isn't As Important As You Think

Photo: Getty Images
Photo: Getty Images

The importance of breakfast has been preached to us for as long as we can remember. We’re constantly told it’s the most important meal of the day and that it kickstarts our metabolism. However, a new claim reveals it might not be quite as important as we’ve been told.

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According to a piece in the New York Times by Aaron Carroll the importance of breakfast is based on, “misinterpreted research and biased studies.” Caroll writes:

“The [reports] improperly used causal language to describe their results. They misleadingly cited others’ results. And they also improperly used causal language in citing others’ results. People believe, and want you to believe, that skipping breakfast is bad.”

There’s also the fact that there’s usually a conflict of interest behind the studies, as a lot are funded by the food industry. For example, Kellogg funded a high cited article that found breakfast is associated with being thinner.

Carroll also says that the reason studies prove that children who eat better perform better at school, doesn’t take into account whether the child wants to eat breakfast. If a child is hungry – often from a family that may not be afford to feed their child enough - and sent to school then of course they will underperform, he says.

“It’s not hard to imagine that children who are hungry will do better if they are nourished. This isn’t the same, though, as testing whether children who are already well nourished and don’t want breakfast should be forced to eat it.”

Carroll sums it up in a nutshell when he says, “breakfast has no mystical powers.” The bottom line is; if you’re hungry, eat breakfast, if you’re not you shouldn’t be made to feel like a leper.